The scientific tourist #184 — see the moon, in San Diego

Well, OK — at least you can see a couple of small pieces of it up close:

After the Apollo missions, then-president Richard Nixon presented each state and 136 countries with lunar rock samples — some from the Apollo 11 mission, others from Apollo 17.

Sadly, quite a few of the samples have since gone missing, and more than a few have been stolen. But at least this pair of samples seems to be in good hands at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. And they’re behind glass, too — easily viewed but hopefully safely out of reach of space-minded kleptomaniacs.

Meanwhile, if you live in the U.S. (but not near San Diego), there’s a handy map that will tell you where the nearest Apollo lunar sample is on display (some states have their samples locked away out of sight).